Sigh…
I recently was informed by someone who claims to be an “expert” at conversions and sales funnels that I should turn all my sales letters into VSL’s (video sales letters) because, and I quote:
video sales letters always out convert text sales letters.
Really?
Is that right, Chachi?
I think not.
Yes, VSL’s can kill it in sales.
And, many do.
But, anyone saying they are “always” better is either lying to you (and has some kind of agenda) or is simply ignorant.
Example?
Alright, how about these mangoes:
Waaaaaay back in 2007 I wrote a sales letter for a manual called “Magnetic Sponsoring”. When hanging at the “No Excuses Summit” in Vegas last month to speak/train the nubile marketing minds attending about email marketing, I got to talking to the guys who run the business that sells that book. And they told me that sales letter, some 7 years later, is still chugging along, kicking butt, nearly unchanged — and has racked up a multi-million dollar sale count over the years.
Naturally, their team is always trying to make it convert better.
And, one of the things they’ve done is test a VSL against it.
The result?
My “plain Jane” text sales letter crushed the VSL.
And that’s just one (of many) examples.
So to all the VSL nazis out there:
Quit being dorks.
There is no one size fits all anything.
And, yes, that’s free advice.
More:
This is the beauty of email.
I have found in many cases if you do email the way I command you to do it, it almost doesn’t matter what sales letter format you use. In fact, my droogie Jim Yaghi has told me repeatedly he will often use my email methodology to send people to a plain order form and still make lots of sales. (And when we partnered in the weight loss niche, we could never get one format to pull better than the other — presumably because the emails were doing the bulk of the selling to our warm list.)
No, I’m not saying forget sales letters.
I’m saying email can do a lot of the heavy lifting.
And, is perfect for people who hate writing long offers.
(Or who simply suck at it.)
To learn my email system, read the *text* letter here:
Ben Settle
